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Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) are members of the Anoplopomatidae family that includes sablefish and skillfish. Other vernacular names of the species in English include butterfish(US), black cod (US, UK, Canada), blue cod (UK), bluefish (UK), candlefish (UK), coal cod (UK), and coalfish (Canada), some of which are also used to refer to other species of fish, depending on the region.

They occur only in the North Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, and adjacent waters from Hokkaido, Japan to Baja, California, with the greatest abundance in the Gulf of Alaska. Adult sablefish occur along the continental slope, shelf gullies, and in deep fjords commonly in depths between 366 m to 914 m [200 to 500 fathoms (fm)], although they have been found in depths of less than 183 m (100 fm) to over 1829 m (1000 fm). Sablefish observed from a manned submersible were found on or within 1 m of the bottom. For detailed summaries of the longline time series (1979-present), query the web accessible database.